Contents

Members of the Serrano tribe are part of the Takic subset of the large Uto-Aztecan group of Native Americans. The language family historically extended along the West Coast, into the Great Basin and into Mexico, with representation among tribes in Mesoamerica.[4][5] They were a branch of the Takic languages speaking people who arrived in Southern California around 2,500 years ago. Serrano means "highlander" or "mountaineer" in Spanish.[6] When the Spanish missionaries came into the region, in the late 18th century they helped create the tribal name Serrano, distinguishing the people from neighboring tribes who were designated as the Tongva (Gabrileño—Fernandeño) to the northwest, and Kitanemuk and Tataviam to the north.

In 1834 the Spanish forcibly relocated many Serrano to the missions. They suffered devastating smallpox outbreaks in 1840 and 1860, as they had no immunity to the Eurasian disease.

In 1867 the Yuhaviatam band of Serrano were the victims of a massacre conducted by white settlers of the San Bernardino Valley during a 32-day campaign at Chimney Rock. The massacre was a response to a raid, probably carried out by Chemehuevi Paiutes, on a white settlement at Lake Arrowhead, during which buildings were burned. Three white ranch hands were killed at a ranch called Los Flores in Summit Valley, near present-day Hesperia. Tribal leader Santos Manuel led the survivors from the mountains to the valley, where they established permanent residence near the hot springs near present-day Highland.

In 1891 the United States established a reservation for them, which took the name San Manuel in honor of Chief Santos Manuel.

The Serrano populated the San Bernardino Mountains and extended northeast into the Mojave River area of the Mojave Desert and southeast to the Tejon Creek area. The Serrano populations along Tejon Creek were identified as the Cuahajai or Cuabajay, their exonyms by the neighboring Mojave tribe. Mountain camps were used for hunting. One such encampment was accidentally unearthed by the U.S. Forest Service fighting a wildfire in 2003 near Baldwin Lake. Uncovered were nonnative jasper and obsidian pieces, ash and charcoal, grinding stones, and fire pits possibly dating back 1,000 years.[7]

The Serrano who inhabited the San Bernardino Mountains would go to the milder areas of Apple Valley and Lucerne Valley during the winter, and the area in and around Big Bear Lake during the summer. They hunted small game such as rabbits, using traps along with bows and arrows. They did not hunt the grizzly bears, which they believed were reincarnations of their ancestors' spirits. They were skilled craftsmen and experts in basketweaving, which they created in a variety of sizes and shapes for different purposes, such as storage, carrying, and sorting.[8]

Their diet consisted of the game which they caught, and nuts and vegetables which they gathered and cooked. The women ground pinon nuts into a dough and made a flat tortilla-like bread. They also gathered acorns from oak trees and ground them for a coarse flour, from which they made a porridge called wiich. Other staples were roasted agave, prickly pears, and yucca blossoms.

Estimates have varied as scholars struggle to determine the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California. (See Population of Native California.)Alfred L. Kroeber put the combined 1770 population of the Serrano, Kitanemuk, and Tataviam at 3,500 and the Serrano proper (excluding the Vanyume) at 1,500.[9] Lowell John Bean suggested an aboriginal Serrano population of about 2,500.[10]

As noted, smallpox epidemics and social disruption reduced the population. The 1880 census reported only 381 Serranos, a number Helen Hunt Jackson thought was too low as it did not account for those who were living in remote areas.[11] Kroeber estimated the combined population of the Serrano, Kitanemuk, and Tataviam in 1910 as 150.